December 28, 2012

Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 by James Ensor




-- James Ensor, Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889, oil on canvas, 99 1/2 x 169 1/2 in., 1888, at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Excerpt, "Mrs Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf


Quiet descended on her, calm, content, as her needle, drawing the silk smoothly to its gentle pause, collected the green folds together and attached them, very lightly, to the belt. So on a summer's day waves collect, overbalance, and fall; collect and fall; and the whole world seems to be saying "that is all" more and more ponderously, until even the heart in the body which lies in the sun on the beach says too, That is all. Fear no more, says the heart, committing its burden to some sea, which sighs collectively for all sorrows, and renews, begins, collects, lets fall. And the body alone listens to the passing bee; the wave breaking; the dog barking, far away barking and barking.


-- Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, 1925, p. 33-34.

December 11, 2012

Winter Landscape with Iceskaters, Hendrick Avercamp , 1608














-- Winter Landscape with Iceskaters, Hendrick Avercamp , 1608, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.